TANGLES - Review | Cannes Film Festival 2026

Leah Nelson’s latest film is a poignant but dazzling drama that doesn’t hold back from capturing the gut-punch from slowly losing loved ones from Alzheimer’s disease. Being a 2D adult animated film, it’s a prime example of using the medium to its most grimy/creative potential to best capture the subject matter for viewer impact. This really separates it from other films dealing with the same issues as viewers suddenly are sucked into the chaotic psychological mindset that the characters are feeling during specific revelations. Abbi Jacobson and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the main daughter and mother provide the emotional weight with their exceptional voice-work, although other smaller roles with prominent actors may feel distracting to the narrative. Still, this film adaptation aims for the strong emotions and succeeds, with a singing sequence in the middle and close to the end standing out as to what makes this debut feel so personal and special.

Still Courtesy - Monarch Media

Set in the 1990s, the story follows Sarah (portrayed by Abbi Jacobson), a young cartoonist living in San Francisco who returns to her conservative hometown after her mother, Midge (portrayed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. As she takes on the responsibility of caring for her mother, Sarah is forced to reconnect with her eccentric family while confronting painful memories and the emotional toll of her mother's declining health. Through the challenges of caregiving, she gradually learns what it truly means to become the daughter her family needs during their most difficult time.

After years of directing short-form projects and co-founding the Vancouver animation studio Giant Ant, Leah Nelson makes a remarkable transition into feature filmmaking with Tangles, an adaptation of Sarah Leavitt's acclaimed graphic memoir. The film, which premiered as a Special Screening at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, immediately announced Nelson as a filmmaker unafraid to use animation to tackle emotionally overwhelming subject matter with honesty and artistic ambition.

Rather than approaching Alzheimer's disease through a conventional live-action drama, this moving adaptation embraces the limitless possibilities of hand-drawn 2D animation to visualize an illness that often defies explanation. The result is both heartbreaking and visually mesmerizing, transforming fading memories, emotional confusion, and fractured perceptions into expressive imagery that pulls viewers directly into the characters' psychological turmoil. By translating the emotional disorientation of the disease into inventive visual storytelling, the film distinguishes itself from many other portrayals of dementia, allowing audiences to experience the gradual loss of identity instead of simply observing it from a distance.

The emotional foundation rests on the outstanding voice performances from Abbi Jacobson and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whose work as daughter and mother carries the narrative with remarkable sincerity. Jacobson perfectly conveys the frustration, grief, and helplessness that comes with watching a loved one slowly disappear, while Louis-Dreyfus brings immense warmth and vulnerability to a character whose fading personality never loses its humanity. Although the supporting cast is filled with recognizable actors, a handful of those appearances can occasionally feel more distracting than enriching, briefly pulling focus away from the intimate family dynamic at the story's centre.

Even with those minor shortcomings, Tangles achieves exactly what it sets out to do: leave a lasting emotional impression. Nelson refuses to manipulate the audience with melodrama, instead allowing quiet moments of love, acceptance, and heartbreak to resonate naturally. Two beautifully staged musical sequences—one arriving midway through the story and another near its conclusion—emerge as emotional highlights, expressing feelings that dialogue alone could never fully articulate. For a feature debut, it is an extraordinarily personal and assured piece of filmmaking, demonstrating how adult animation can explore difficult subjects with a level of creativity and emotional depth that few live-action films could hope to match.

Verdict

8/10